Blue
by Pylila
Summary: "Cars are made to crumble on impact, made to buckle and fold on the outside to protect what's on the inside. So when the hood of the little blue sedan crumpled like wet paper, the boy inside didn't die; he just broke."
1. The Aquarium

A/N: Wouldn't it be cute if everyone in Blaine's family had a name starting with 'B'? I think it would. Anyway, this is my first story here. I wrote some HP fanfiction when I was a preteen, so it's been years since I tried this. However, Blaine and Kurt were too cute a couple not to write about. Reviews would be appreciated more than anything, and I will give you a virtual cookie if you review :) (I make the BEST virtual cookies).

**Disclaimer: I do not own Glee, Chris Colfer, or Darren Criss. Though I will own Darren Criss soon. You can count on it.**

Cars crash everyday. People die. Souls flit out of bodies like breath out of lungs, like glass through the air. Cars are made to crumble on impact, made to buckle and fold on the outside to protect what's on the inside. So when the hood of the little blue sedan crumpled like wet paper, the boy inside didn't die; he just broke.

Blaine could never walk straight. Rex Harrison would have given up on him after dozens of tomes fell off his head. As Blaine walked through a room, his hips would be drawn to table corners as if magnetically charged and his thighs and upper arms would bash against pillars and walls. And on this particular winter morning, the chill in the air had tightened his skin, making it more prone to bruising. After dinging his knee on his bed frame, he decided it best to stay seated for the remainder of the morning. After very cautiously making a cup of hot tea, he nestled into the big, plush couch with a microfleece comforter and the TV remote.

_Why are the best things always on The Access Channel? Do blind people have better taste in entertainment than the sighted population?_

Blaine resigned himself to watching _Singing In The Rain _with a detailed narrative rambling on distractingly. It didn't take long before he started to enjoy it, however, laughing as the speaker tried to catch up with Donald O'Connor's frenzied feet. It was then that his phone rang. He had left his phone in the kitchen, so he had to jump up and run to get it before it stopped ringing. He bumped his right shoulder on a standing lamp before reaching the phone and glancing at the caller ID.

**Kurt Hummel**

Kurt was possibly Blaine's favourite person in the whole world, and the sight of his name made Blaine beam like a searchlight.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Blaine. Happy Saturday," Kurt chirped.

"And to you as well, sir," Blaine said, smiling sheepishly.

"Any plans for today?"

"Not unless you wanna do something,"

_Please want to do something with me_, thought Blaine, biting his lower lip.

"Well, let's do something, then," Kurt replied nonchalantly.

Blaine did a victory lap in his head. "Any ideas?"

"Let's go to the aquarium!" Kurt sounded like a little kid.

Blaine could picture his eyes lit up with excitement and chuckled. "Sure, pick you up in an hour?"

"Sounds good. See you then." With that, Kurt hung up.

Just as Blaine was about to go upstairs to get ready, his mom and little sister walked through the front door. His mom was carrying large grocery bags in both arms and was holding the door open with her foot as Bonnie bounded in, a bubblegum cigar held between her teeth.

"Morning, Hon," Mrs. Anderson said to her son as she struggled with the groceries.

"Morning, mom," Blaine replied as he took the bags from her and set them on the kitchen island, "bit early to be shopping, isn't it?"

"Well, Bonnie needed tap shoes for her new class and was up at 6:30, ready to go get them."

Blaine chuckled at Bonnie and ruffled her hair. She flashed him a toothy grin, her front teeth both missing.

"Besides," their mom said as she kissed Blaine on the cheek, "it's already ten and you're still in your pyjamas. If anyone's off-schedule, you are."

"Good point," Blaine conceded.

"Are you just going to - Bonnie! Do not jump on the couch! - laze around the house all day?"

"No, I'm going to the aquarium with Kurt."

Betty Anderson rose her eyebrows and gave Blaine a smug look. "Kurt again, hmm?"

Blaine pretended not to know what she was hinting at, and just shrugged his shoulders and raised one eyebrow back at his mother.

"Mm, yes, of course, you're 'just friends'." Betty said.

"We are!"

"Yeah, keep telling yourself that, Hon, but I hear stories about that boy every night at dinner and you spend all your free time with him," She said as she headed towards the stairs, "You've even scribbled 'Mister Anderson-Hummel' in your diary,'" she added, climbing up and out of sight.

"Wait! Excuse me! You read my diary?" Blaine shouted after her.

She peered back around the corner at the top of the stairs and said, "Not on purpose, Bunny, you left it open on your dresser and I was just getting your laundry." She smirked and disappeared again.

Blaine stared after her blankly, lost in thought. He jumped at least two feet in the air when Bonnie snuck up behind him and shouted, as little kids do, "Who's Kurt?"

"Oh, um, he's a friend of mine."

"Is he your boyfriend?" She shouted again.

"No, he's not, and shh!" Blaine said, thoroughly irked.

"DO YOU LOVE HIM?" Bonnie yelled even louder this time.

"BONNIE!" Blaine yelled back.

She ran away, giggling, and Blaine chased her around the house for a good ten minutes until he remembered that he had a date.

_No, it's not a date. It's just a... chill sesh. We're hanging out. Like bros._

Blaine scrunched his nose in disgust at calling Kurt a "bro." He practically threw his sister into his mom's room and shut the door. He then proceeded to have a long, cold, soapy shower.

"Shit."

Half an hour later, Blaine was standing in his room with a towel around his waist, his hair dripping cold water down his face and neck. He needed to be at Kurt's house in twenty minutes and he was a forty-minute drive away. He quickly texted Kurt ("running late, see you soon") and threw on an old pair of blue jeans and a dark green turtleneck sweater. He scurried downstairs, grabbed a coat and shouted a farewell at his mom as he hurried out the door.

Five minutes later, he was zooming down the highway in his blue Honda, singing along sloppily with the radio.

_The Warblers would be ashamed to hear me now._

His phone chirruped from his pocket. He knew he shouldn't get it, but what if it was Kurt? Blaine waited until he was stopped at a red light before digging his phone out of his pocket to read his text. It was indeed from Kurt.

**Ok, c u soon :)**

Blaine smiled at his phone. Usually he was a complete grammar Nazi, yet when Kurt broke the rules, it was cute. Suddenly, a car horn blared from behind, jolting him back into awareness. The light had turned green. He stepped on the gas. The angry truck behind him tailgated him for a few miles after that, even though Blaine was speeding slightly.

_The sooner to see you, Kurt darling._

After losing the truck behind him, Blaine took to singing with the radio again, even more loudly and recklessly than before.

"IF YOU'RE LOST, YOU CAN LOOK AND YOU WILL FIND ME, TIME AFTER TIME!"

_Cyndi Lauper doesn't get enough credit._

Blaine was making great time on his drive. He had already shaved eight minutes off due to speeding and consecutive green lights, but he could see some mild traffic congestion up ahead. He decided to take a back route and turned onto a smaller road. Just as Blaine was praising himself on his luck, he hit a patch of black ice.

A/N: *le gasp* Cliffhanger! If you don't know, Rex Harrison was the guy from _My Fair Lady _who taught Audrey Hepburn to sit up straight by putting books on her head. I think. I haven't seen that movie in a while. I usually hate sad stories, but this is totes gonna be one. To cheer you up, why don't you go to YouTube and watch the Striped Sweater Song from Spongebob? It was the inspiration for Blaine's outfit ;) Also, review! It'll make me so happy.


	2. Red Glass

A/N: For some strange reason my e-mail preferences were set to an address that I rarely check, so it was days before I knew the response Chapter One got! It made me so happy! I got 30+ follows and some very nice reviews :) Virtual cookies for everyone. Chapter 2 is sad and even shorter than the first chapter. But if I don't make my chapters really short, there will probably be weeks between updates. Short and sweet. Well, bittersweet. Like I said, it's sad, so I'll put a joke at the end for you.

Two and a half hours. Blaine was two and a half hours late and Kurt had a strong suspicion he wasn't coming. He wasn't responding to his texts and Kurt didn't know if he should feel sad or furious. He tried to forget about it - he would ask Blaine about it at school on Monday - and reclined on his bed with a _Vanity Fair_.

_Anything less than 500 thread-count should be outlawed._

This was not how Kurt wanted to spend his Saturday afternoon. At least no one else in his family was having an exciting weekend: his dad was upstairs watching daytime television, Finn was either playing video games or taking a nap (giants need plenty of rest just to haul themselves around) and Carole was getting her hair done. If Kurt had known he was going to get stood up, he would've accompanied Carole to make sure she didn't get another '80s hairdo - or worse, the "Rachel." That look went out with crop tops and Doc Martens. Kurt sank further into his Egyptian sheets as he rifled through the Golden Globes' style awards.

_Natalie Portman looked like an intestinal polyp at the Golden Globes._

"Uh, Kurt?" Burt's voice spilled down from the floor above.

"Yeah, Dad?" Kurt replied.

"What kind of car does your friend Blake drive?"

Kurt sighed. "You mean Blaine?"

"Yeah, him."

"Um," Kurt said as he climbed off his bed and up the basement stairs, "some little blue Japanese thing. It cost him, like, twenty grand, but he's a trust fund kid." By the end of his sentence Kurt had reached the top of his stairs and was now face-to-face with Burt Hummel.

"Didn't you tell me he was coming to take you to the aquarium?"

"Yes," said Kurt, now thoroughly confused.

"Now, I don't want to scare you, Son, but maybe you should see this." Burt led Kurt over to the TV in the living room.

"Dad, what-" Kurt paused. His eyes grew in shock and his face completely drained of blood. On the screen before him was a live report from the scene of a local accident, a bright yellow banner flashing "BREAKING NEWS" across the bottom. A little blue car had flipped over and crashed right into an old tree. The tree's trunk had broken clean and the top three-quarters of the tree had fallen over on top of the car.

"Is that... that's not Blaine's car, is it?" Burt asked.

"It is," said Kurt, his eyes glazed over and no longer able to see clearly anymore.

_But it can't be._

Kurt suddenly dashed back downstairs and grabbed his phone off his desk. He speed-dialed Blaine's cell and held the phone up to his ear with bated breath.

_Pick up. Pick up. Pick up. Pick up._

No answer. Kurt hung up and called again. And again. And again. Burt was standing at the top of the stairs, watching Kurt in distress. Kurt didn't know what to do, he just knew he needed to be with Blaine. Immediately. He bounded up the stairs and headed towards the front door, fulling intending to drive to Blaine. Burt caught up to him and grabbed Kurt's upper arm.

"Hang on, Son, you're not driving there."

"Yes I am, Dad. I-I have to." Kurt was pale and shaking slightly.

Burt thought for a second. "Okay, I'll tell you what. We'll go in my truck."

The drive was hell. Kurt's face slowly went from white to green and Burt was clenching his jaw so hard that his teeth shook inside his head. Burt needed to be there for his son right now. He thought he recognized the site of the crash on the news report, so he drove at full speed to get there.

They arrived at the site merely five minutes later - Blaine got so close to their house - and Kurt leapt out of the truck before it had even pulled to a full stop. He tripped over several yards of icy dirt until he reached the crowd - paramedics, firemen, a news crew and - and a petite woman holding a little girl's hand. Kurt stopped in his tracks and stared at her.

She saw him out of her periphery and turned to him. Her red-rimmed eyes looked just like Blaine's. She tilted her head and squinted at him, as if trying to figure out who he was. Then, she nodded solemnly and held out her free hand to him. Kurt took it and they stood in silence, holding hands. Burt caught up and put his strong hand on Kurt's shoulder. Betty, Kurt and Burt all stood perfectly still, looking straight ahead at the mangled car. A couple firemen were cutting through the twisted frame with power tools while their colleagues tugged at the sturdy ropes that had been tied around the broken tree.

Bonnie squirmed and whimpered. This reminded her of her grandma's funeral, when everyone was acting really sad and she just wanted to go play. It wasn't good that Blaine was stuck in his car, but there was a radio in there and he always kept candy in the glove compartment. Bonnie remembered when she found out about Blaine's candy stash.

"_Bonnie, if you don't sit still you'll go flying through the windshield at the next stoplight."_

"_But I'm bored, Blaine!"_

"_It's just a ten-minute drive to school, you can sit still for ten minutes."_

"_Hey, Blaine, what's this?"_

"_Oh, that's my candy. Don't eat any."_

"_Why not?"_

"_It's there for emergencies."_

"_What kind of emergencies?"_

"_I don't know, like, if I get caught in an avalanche or something."_

"_Well, in that case you should have Big Red gum. It's like a fire in your mouth so you won't get too cold."_

Then Bonnie remembered that she had snuck into Blaine's car and stolen a bag of sour worms a few weeks ago. She started to feel the heat of guilt rise into her face and she was ashamed. She started to cry and squeezed her mother's hand as tightly as she could.

Three long and painful hours later, Blaine was excavated from the remains of his car and loaded on a stretcher. Before Betty climbed into the ambulance to be with her son, she told Kurt to meet them at the hospital. She squeezed his hand one last time and smiled at him before saying, "You really are cute," then she and Bonnie got in the ambulance.

Burt said, "Come on, Kurt," and motioned toward the truck.

"In a minute, Dad." Kurt replied, and Burt headed over to the truck himself to wait for Kurt. Kurt crossed his arms across his chest and tensed every muscle in his body, scrunching his eyes shut, and then completely let go. It was a technique he had been using for years - if he couldn't get rid of mental tension, he would get rid of physical tension. He looked up at the car - it was surrounded by the red glass of the shattered brake lights and a stain of gasoline was seeping out onto the ground from under the crushed roof. He walked around the car to the driver's side and crouched down to look inside. The rearview mirror was hanging precariously from the cracked windshield and the dashboard had blood smeared across it. Kurt shuddered, jumped up, and ran towards the truck. When he reached the shoulder of the road, he slipped on a patch of black ice. He fell right onto his backside. He sat, shocked, for a moment, and then burst out laughing. His laughing was maniacal and sounded forced.

Burt got out of the truck and ran over to Kurt, bending down to him. "Are you okay, Kurt?"

But Kurt wasn't okay. Almost unnoticeably, Kurt's laughter turned into gasping sobs. His face turned dark red and tears streamed down his cheeks as he learned into Burt's shoulder, his entire body convulsing.

"Shh, it's okay, Kurt. It will be okay," Burt whispered as he held his boy tightly in his arms. Father and son sat on the ice for a long time, crying.

A/N: *sob* so sad. I promised you a joke, so here you go: Why can't you hear a pterodactyl go to the bathroom? Because the pee is silent! Next chapter will be from Blaine's POV again.


	3. Chicken Nuggets

A/N: AHHHH this week's Glee was so good. At first I was like, "hee hee" but then I was like "whaaa?" and then I was like "WTFRUDOINGBLAINE" and then I was like "hee hee" again. On the same note, for the purposes of this story, I'm pretending that the last few episodes didn't happen. No surfer/stoner Gap Boy, no drunken tongue wrestling with Rachel, nothing. Whoosh. Gone. To make up for the update delay, this one's long... er than the other chapters. Also a bit sad again, so I'll have another bad joke for you at the end.

_Five hours earlier_

Blaine could smell raw skin and his mouth tasted like iron. He felt a white-hot pain running from the base of his skull down to his left hip. He could feel his heart thumping in his neck and he sensed a dull, grey light behind his closed eyelids. He could hear a faint hissing and a slow _drip, drip, drip_... He listened to the drips for what felt like hours, days, years. The only indication at the passage of time was that the heat in his back slowly dissipated into an unbearable chill that sent tremors through his body so furious, he might be having a seizure.

He heard a loud crunching from below that shook the whole world like an earthquake. Below? No, it wasn't below, but it was in the opposite direction from his head. Then he realized he was upside-down. He took a shuddering breath that made his chest ache as if stabbed by a fire poker and the chill spread further throughout his body. He had watched enough TV to know that he probably shouldn't fall asleep, but his eyes were refusing to open and his mind felt like it was drowning in sludge.

_Stay awake. Stay awake. Play a word game. Umm, countries through the alphabet._

_ Algeria._

It was the strangest sensation, as if every bone in his body had been replaced by ice replicas.

_Bahrain._

Then, slowly, it felt as if all of his bones evaporated and he was left as a limp doll.

_ Cambodia. Denmark._

He wanted to wiggle his toes or make a fist or do _something_, but he was too fragile and disoriented to even remember how to use his muscles.

_Estonia. Um, Finland._

He couldn't even remember if he had muscles anymore.

_ G... Gibraltar. Is Gibraltar a country? I don't think so... Okay, Ghana. Germany. Gabon._

His skin tingled and crawled as if millions of ants that were dipped in hot alcohol were crawling all over him. His skin burned, but his insides still pulsated with an extreme cold.

_Honduras. Indonesia. Don't fall asleep. Indonesia. Um, Jakarta. No, Jakarta is in Indonesia. Java. Also in Indonesia. Um, Japan._

The sound of his heartbeat was clouded over with a low buzzing that now filled his head. A black hole spread from his chest throughout his body, and, suddenly, he couldn't feel anything anymore. The light behind his eyes disappeared and was replaced by total darkness.

_Stay awake, Blaine. What am I at? K? K. Kiribati. Where the fuck is Kiribati anyway?_

He gasped involuntarily, ripping his dry lips apart, breaking the skin. He tasted more iron and all of the warmth in his mouth floated away immediately. His tongue felt dry, cracked and swollen.

_Lithuania. Madagascar. Madagascar. Um, Norway._

Through the droning in his mind, he thought he heard voices. Muffled voices that seemed so far away. The light reappeared on the other side of his eyelids. Was he dying? Was this heaven? No, Blaine didn't believe in heaven. But maybe he should start to, maybe it was his only hope.

_O. Oman. P. Philippines._

The darkness swallowed him whole and he fell fast into a coma.

_Six hours later_

Lima General Hospital smelled like antiseptic and cold plastic. Harsh, fluorescent lights cast a blue-white light over everything and the grey, linoleum floor amplified every footstep like a megaphone. Kurt dashed to the receptionist's desk.

"Blaine Anderson?" He asked, out of breath.

The receptionist checked her computer at a glacial pace and her face remained apathetic. Kurt silently cursed a pox on her firstborn.

"Hmm," She said, pursing her lips, "that name's not showing up here. That might mean he doesn't have a room yet. Maybe he's in the ER."

Kurt whipped around without another word to the emotionless hag and glanced up at the hanging signs, looking for the one that would say EMERGENCY ROOM - . He found it and ran off in the direction of the arrow, Burt trailing close behind.

"Kurt. Kurt!" Burt shouted, "they won't let you in there." Burt finally caught up with Kurt and grabbed his shoulder, whirling him around. "We need to wait out here, Son, they don't let anyone but family in the ER." Burt remembered the protocol from when his first wife was in the hospital.

Kurt sank onto the floor, defeated. Burt tenderly pulled him up by the elbows and supported him as they walked to the waiting room. They each plunked into a red, canvas chair and sighed deeply. Then, Kurt's phone rang. He reached into his pocket, glanced at the caller ID and answered.

"Hello?" He paused. "We're at the hospital, Finn. No, I'm fine - seriously - just - shut up, Finn! It's Blaine. He was in an accident." He paused again, longer this time. "Hi, Carole. No, I'm fine. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Okay." Kurt hung up. He turned to Burt and said, "Carole and Finn are coming."

The doors opposite them opened and Betty and Bonnie walked through, still holding hands. Kurt jumped up and ran over to hug Betty. He felt so close to her already.

"He's in the OR," Betty said, answering Kurt's unspoken query, "they can't tell me much, but they said he'll be in surgery for at least a few hours." Her voice cracked as she tried to hold in her tears. Kurt led her over to the chair he had just vacated. She collapsed into it and breathed loudly and slowly. Kurt got her a cup of water from the nearby water cooler. She clutched onto it with both hands, staring at the surface of the water with unseeing eyes.

"Mommy?" Bonnie said timidly.

"Yes, Dear?" Betty said, not looking up from her water.

"I'm hungry."

Betty's head jerked up and she looked at Bonnie. Betty's face looked greatly conflicted, as if she was trying to choose which of her children she liked best.

Burt jumped up. "I'll take her to the cafeteria,"

Betty shook herself back into rationality. "No, no, it's fine. I'll go."

"No," Burt argued, "I wouldn't mind a little something to eat, too. We'll bring back coffee. Kurt, coffee?"

"Yes, please."

Betty smiled at Burt and nodded slightly. Her eyes were full of nothingness, like two great chasms that fell forever.

"I want chicken," Bonnie said as she grabbed Burt's hand. They left, leaving Kurt and Betty alone.

As soon as Bonnie was out of sight, fat tears rolled down Betty's cheeks in quick succession. Her petite shoulders shook and sharp gasps replaced her heavy breathing. She placed her water on the floor by her feet then leaned forward, resting her head on her knees and clutching her hands against her chest.

Kurt crouched on the floor in front of her and placed his hands on the sides of her wet face. "He'll be okay. It will all be okay," He said, starting to cry again himself.

Bonnie was very chatty and charismatic. She kept asking Burt questions as he tried to hold on to her hand. She was swerving back and forth and bumping into people and things as if out of her control.

"Are you Kurt's daddy?" She asked.

"Yes, I am."

"Are you a nice daddy?"

"Um. Yeah, I think so."

"Are you a lumberjack?"

"What? No, I'm a mechanic."

"Mechanics don't wear plaid! They wear those blue things."

"Well, I wear a blue thing at work," Burt smiled a little in spite of himself. He had forgotten how much fun little kids were. "Here we are," he said, steering them into the hospital cafeteria.

Five minutes later, Bonnie and Burt were sitting across from each other at a small, round, grey table. She was munching on frozen chicken nuggets and he was poking his pasta salad suspiciously with a fork. Bonnie was full of energy, but quite polite and well-behaved. She refused to sit on her chair normally, but at least she stayed sitting in it as she rolled around and flung her legs wildly.

"Mister Burt's Daddy?" She said.

"You can call me Burt, Bonnie." Burt smiled again.

"Oh, okay. Are you going to be my new daddy-of-law?"

Burt tilted his head. "Your what?"

"Daddy-of-law!" She responded, matter-of-factly, "If Blaine marries Kurt, then you'll be my daddy-of-law, right?"

"Huh? Oh!" Burt realized what she was asking. "Um, I don't know. I guess so." Burt was thrown off by Bonnie's nonchalance.

"Good. I've never had a daddy before." Bonnie went back to her chicken.

Burt just stared at her, wordless. Her was this little girl, full of so much life that it spilled out onto everything she touched, as if she couldn't ask for anything in the world, yet she wanted a father. She reminded him of Kurt after his mom died, missing something so significant yet smiling and laughing like every day was precious. Behaving like a mood ring, Burt's mouth started to taste bitter and sweet at the same time. Or maybe it was the pasta salad.

A/N: What do you call a midget psychic who escaped from prison? A small medium at large!

Boo-yah! 'Nother chaptah! I had some serious dental work done last week and I was incapacitated by horse-strength painkillers for a few days, but I'm back! Yay. Have you heard Darren Criss' EP? I've been listening to it for weeks. It's pretty smfah.


	4. Fake Gerberas

A/N: Saw clips Darren Criss on some American morning show. His infinite awesomeness makes me want to dance the tango. I don't know how to tango, though, so I'll just merengue instead. As for this chapter: I know fudge-all about hospitals and injuries, so I made it up, with some help from Wikipedia. I hope it's convincing. The regularly scheduled joke awaits you at the end.

The sun had set a couple hours ago and the fluorescent lights were humming louder and louder by the minute. The three adults had ingested copious amounts of coffee and the child was so full of Sprite that she suffered from a Sprite headache and had to lie down. She was currently sleeping, curled up on a chair with her head in the lap of her mother. Burt and Kurt sat across from Bonnie and Betty on the other side of a low, pine table topped with a box of tissues, outdated magazines and a vase of dusty fake gerberas. A family of origami cranes also sat on the table, sitting next to the tissue box. About an hour earlier, Kurt had taught Bonnie how to fold them using pamphlets about blood pressure. Now, Betty and Kurt were hushedly talking about deep sea creatures ("Why is a giant squid's eye always compared to a dinner plate? Squid eyes should never be associated with dinner,"), and Burt was trying to figure out how to play air hockey on Kurt's iPhone.

A stately man in a white coat approached them, looking at the clipboard clutched in his hand. He was tall and broad-shouldered, with a receding hairline and half-rimmed glasses. "Mrs. ...Anderson?" He called.

Betty stood up and the doctor walked up to her, towering over her petite stature.

"You are Blaine Anderson's mother, yes?" He asked her.

She nodded.

"He's out of surgery now and his condition is stable, but he is unconscious and will be for a while yet. We think it best to leave him asleep until the pain is at a manageable level."

"How long will that take?" Betty asked.

"It could take hours or days, but odds are he'll wake up by tomorrow morning anyways. We just don't suggest inducing wakefulness and instead letting him wake up on his own. Now, he has suffered extensive injuries. He has three broken ribs, a fractured skull and several lacerations that required stitching. His right lung was punctured and he suffered some internal bleeding, which should have been fully taken care of by the operations. His wrist is fractured and his left tibia - that's his shin bone - is shattered. The ribs and the wrist are basically clean breaks, but the tibia, that's probably going to be the one to worry about. Those are the major problems, apart from that he has minor scrapes and bruises pretty much all over his body."

Betty stood there in shock. "H-how many stitches?"

"One hundred and two," The doctor said tactlessly.

Betty sank back into her chair, staring blankly ahead of her.

"Oh, uh," The doctor said, realizing his bluntness, "um, yeah." He turned around and walked down the hall to a young woman in a matching white coat and said a few words to her. The woman turned to look at Betty, then walked up to her briskly and crouched in front of her on the ground, similar to how Kurt had done earlier.

"Mrs. Anderson? Hi, I'm Dr. North. I've seen your son personally and I just want you to know that I believe he will fully recover. He'll be awake by tomorrow and, with enough morphine, the worst he'll feel here is bored." Dr. North smiled at Betty. "And I will personally make sure that Dr. Lawrence checks with me before talking to you again. He can be a bit... harsh." Dr. North stroked Betty's arm comfortingly and Betty smiled back at her, sniffling.

Dr. Lawrence reappeared behind Dr. North and said, "Um, Alice?"

Dr. North stood up and faced him. "What's wrong?"

Dr. Lawrence glanced at Betty and Bonnie, then dragged Dr. North by her upper arm out of earshot. He said a few words, then Alice gasped and ran down the hallway and around the corner, out of sight. Dr. Lawrence looked at Betty once more, then followed Alice.

Kurt and Betty exchanged looks of fear. Then Kurt stood up and ran after the doctors.

"Kurt!" Burt called after him, but didn't bother chasing after him. He knew it would be useless.

As soon as Kurt was out of sight, the automatic doors slid open and Finn and Carole ran into the room, looking around frantically. They spotted Burt and ran up to him. They took turns giving Burt a hug (Carole did it warmly, Finn did it awkwardly), and began to bombard him with questions that ran into each other indistinguishably. Burt filled them in on the situation, then introduced them each to Betty. The Hudsons procured their own chairs and joined the little waiting party.

"Hang on," Carole said, "where's Kurt?"

"Oh, yeah," Finn added, just now noticing Kurt's absence.

"Oh, he went chasing after a couple doctors." Burt told them.

Finn and Carole nodded as if this was completely normal behaviour.

Meanwhile, Kurt was pacing back and forth in front of a closed door. He tried to run in after the doctors, but a couple of nurses pushed him out and slammed the door in his face. Before the door closed, however, he caught a glimpse of Blaine's limp body, hooked up to numerous machines and covered in plaster and bandages. The image wouldn't leave Kurt's mind and it scared him so much that his teeth were chattering. With every step he took, a million thoughts popped into his head, some good, some horrible.

_When he wakes up, I'm buying him one of those giant new Starbucks coffees. With whipped cream. And chocolate sauce. _

_ But what if he doesn't wake up?_

_ What if he's crippled? Maybe he and Artie could start a wheelchair-basketball league._

_ I wonder how Blaine would look in a basketball uniform. I've never seen him in shorts. He'd look good in shorts._

_ Does Blaine even like basketball? I'll ask him when he wakes up._

_ But what if he doesn't wake up?_

_ I can't think like that. He will wake up. And when he does, I will hit him for crashing his car and kiss him for being alive._

_ I wonder if kissing would hurt him. It would probably hurt less than hitting him._

_ Which I will do. Because he's stupid. He's a stupid-head._

_ Those giant coffees are called Tetras, aren't they? No, they're Trentas. Tetras are fish. Why on earth would anyone need so much coffee? Never mind, that's a stupid question. Coffee is awesome._

_ I should have kissed him earlier. Like, a few days ago. It wouldn't have hurt then._

Kurt's brain was running a thousand miles a minute. It was like a runaway train going off a cliff - uncontrollable and unstoppable. Kurt had never felt such a wild cocktail of emotions swirling inside him before. He stopped walking, tensed every muscle in his body, including his face, then let go. Then let go some more until he was sitting on the floor. He shuffled his position until he was leaning against the wall across from the door, staring at it.

_Open sesame._

_ I wonder if it would be too inappropriate to sing right now. Probably._

_ I wonder if Blaine was singing when he crashed. I always picture him as singing all the time. Singing while eating, reading, showering._

_ Not that I picture Blaine in the shower._

_ Who in their right mind doesn't sing in the shower?_

_ I wonder what song I'll sing at his funeral._

_ EIGHTY YEARS FROM NOW. He's not dying today. He's going to become an old, wrinkly man. _

_He'll probably be an adorable old man._

_ I better not outlive him. I don't think my heart could take it._

_ I wonder if he'll carry around butterscotch candies when he's old. Lots of old people do that. They'll probably be Werther's. I wonder if he's tried those new chocolate Werther's. I'll buy him some when he wakes up. They'll go well with his coffee._

Kurt continued staring at the door as if it were the most fascinating door in the world. It wasn't fascinating at all; in fact, it could very well be the most boring door in the world. Grey. Silver doorknob. Plain. Unnervingly immaculate. He studied that door with such intensity that his eyes hurt, but he couldn't find a single flaw - no dents, nicks, smudges.

_ I never realized how boring perfect is before._

_ I wonder if that's why I like Blaine so much. He's far from perfect, always tripping over everything._

_ He sure smells good, though._

The door opened and Dr. Lawrence walked out. He spotted Kurt on the floor in front of him and stopped.

Kurt immediately stood up and scurried over to Dr. Lawrence, shouting "What's wrong? How's Blaine?"

"Oh, um," Dr. Lawrence muttered, "he, uh, suffered a slight cardiac arrest brought on by his pneumothor - um, his collapsed lung. We resuscitated him immediately, Dr. North just overreacted a bit."

"Wait," Kurt started, "she 'overreacted'? One of her patients had a heart attack and she 'overreacted'?" His voice rose several decibels and an entire octave.

"Now, a cardiac arrest and a heart attack are not the same thing, a heart attack can cause a cardiac arrest, but so can many other - "

Kurt didn't want to listen to Dr. Lawrence anymore. He pushed past the startled doctor and forced himself into the room.

It was the same image that had been floating in Kurt's head since he first got shoved out of the room: Blaine, lying almost lifeless on a small hospital bed. His eyes were closed but his eyebrows were furrowed, as if he were having a nightmare. His left leg was in a cast and was suspended several feet above the bed; his right arm was also in a cast and his head was wrapped in bandages. Kurt suspected that miles of bandages were also wrapped around his chest under his hospital gown. His face was littered with tiny scratches and cuts, and a disfiguring, dark purple bruise covered his right eye and cheek. His lips were raw and blistered and were parted slightly, drawing in raspy, labored breaths.

Dr. North was in a chair beside the bed, leaning towards Blaine and stroking his arm, as she had done with Betty. She noticed Kurt, then beckoned him without saying a word. Kurt tentatively stepped over to her. She reached back and pulled up a chair that was pushed against the wall. Kurt sat down.

"Are you two close?" She whispered.

"Very," Kurt replied, equally hushed.

"It's times like these when I hate my job and love it at the same time," She smiled sadly at Kurt, "I hate it because I have to see the pain in your eyes, and in his mother's eyes. But I love it because I get to tell you that he'll be okay. You don't know it yet, but the look you'll get in your eyes when he wakes up is the motivation I need to keep saving lives." She put her hand over Kurt's. It was warm and small.

Dr. North reminded Kurt of his third grade teacher, Ms. Graham. Ms. Graham taught Kurt all about guardian angels when his mom was dying. She told him that he was his mom's angel, and he told Ms. Graham that she was his. Kurt didn't believe in angels anymore, but if he did, he would say Dr. North definitely was one.

A/N: Two goldfish are in a tank. One turns to the other and says, "You man the guns, I'll drive."

Bit of a downer chapter, so I threw in Kurt's silly internal narrative. I hope it made you chuckle a wee bit. Longest chapter yet by a solid 400-or-so words! Too many commas in it, though? I think so. I kinda hate to say it, but my favourite part of writing this chapter was coming up with all of Blaine's injuries. My least favourite part was trying to name the doctors and Kurt's teacher. It wasn't nearly as much fun as coming up with Betty and Bonnie. Reviews make me really really happy :) Virtual Red Vines to all reviewers.


	5. Sour Worms

A/N: Why was there no Glee this week? Garrrrgh. N-e-o-a (geddit? Read it out loud really fast), this chapter isn't as depressing as the few prior, but I still put a joke at the end. I'm running out of jokes here, people! Well, I haven't told you some of my favourites because I tend to like inappropriate and vaguely offensive jokes. But enough about me! This is about you! You should review, yes? Yes. I believe so. On with the story!

-line break!-

What a crappy night. Finn didn't want to spend his Saturday night in the hospital worrying about someone he didn't even really know. But he was determined to be there for Kurt because, and it made his stomach cramp to admit it, but he loved Kurt. Like a brother. The way a very straight older brother loves his quirky, gay younger brother. Finn knew how important Blaine was to Kurt. Now that they lived together, Finn and Kurt were having long conversations on a regular basis. Through these conversations, Finn learned many things: a couple full sentences in French ("Je suis un gros poulet"), why it was so important to keep your cuticles in check, why people eat egg white omelettes. But, mostly, Finn learned all about Blaine. Finn knew way more about this dude than he wanted to. He knew that Blaine played the guitar. He knew he used Aveeno on his hands to soften his rough, guitar-playing hands. He knew his birthday, his favourite pie, he even knew that he had a freckle on the left side of his clavicle. _Way_ more than Finn needed to know. But he knew it anyway because, night after night, he would sit and listen to Kurt's ramblings on how amazing Blaine was. It stirred something strange and alien inside Finn; it made Finn feel - dare he say it? - protective of Kurt. But why? When Kurt started talking about Blaine, Finn had a strong urge to find Blaine and have a serious talk with him. But _why_?

_ It's not like Kurt's way younger than me, or a girl or anything. He can take care of himself._

_ But damn that little dude if he doesn't mean too much to me._

Carole had fallen asleep onto Burt's shoulder (Burt was also asleep) and Finn felt awkward around Blaine's mom, so he decided to walk around a little bit. The hospital seemed fairly quiet overall, but there was a constant hum and beeping of machines in the background. Finn didn't know how long he had been walking when the taupe walls were replaced by bright yellow ones. By the time he noticed the change, he was standing in a hallway with a very colourful mural of a merry-go-round on one wall and a large window in the wall across from it. On the other side of the window was a paler yellow room filled with row upon row of bassinets. Inside each bassinet was a newborn baby with either a pink or blue ribbon around its ankle. Finn was mesmerised by these tiny people. He stepped right up to the glass until his nose was almost touching it.

The bassinet in the very centre of the room held a little baby with a pink anklet. She was gazing up at the ceiling and a little bubble of drool was slowly growing in the corner of her mouth. The bubble popped and she blinked, as if startled.

Finn laughed.

-line break!-

Dr. North had left to tell Betty that she could see her son, leaving Kurt alone with Blaine.

He was humming absent-mindedly while he held Blaine's hand up to his, comparing them. Kurt's fingers were more slender, but Blaine's were longer. Kurt's fingers tapered from the bases daintily; Blaine's fingers were widest at the knuckles. Kurt's hands were soft and fragile; Blaine had artist's hands, calloused, with stiff fingertips from guitar-playing.

Several times a minute, Kurt would glance up at Blaine's face, which was slightly contorted in pain. Kurt's face mirrored it, his stomach flipping and twisting at the idea of Blaine in pain.

Dr. North reentered the room, followed closely by Betty. Betty gasped "My baby!" then ran up to Blaine, cupped his face in her hands and placed her forehead gently against his. She clenched her eyes shut and tears squeezed out, pooling in the inner corners of her eyes, until the weight of the tears became too much and they slid down her nose onto Blaine's.

Kurt felt uncomfortable, as if he were intruding on a very private moment. Trying to be as inconspicuous as possible, he slowly stood up and backed out of the room, closing the door after him. Once out in the hallway, he let out the breath he didn't remember holding in. Massaging his temples, his walked down the hall without looking in front of him. He was fully intent on returning to the waiting room on the floor below, but he forgot that stairs would be involved. He took one step where the was no floor beneath his foot, and went tumbling down.

-line break!-

Bonnie slowly cracked open her eyes. She saw two sleeping grown-ups in front of her, sideways. One of them was Kurt's daddy. She sat up with a jolt and looked around wildly. She was alone and her cheek hurt from the fabric of the chair her face had been pressed against.

"Mommy?" She whimpered. She saw a clock hanging on the wall across the room, and approached it until she was right under it, looking up at it. She scrunched her nose and pursed her lips, trying to read the time.

_The smaller one is bigger, so it's backwards. The bigger one is smaller._

This little, white clock was much harder to read then the giant, yellow, foam one in her classroom. She could remember that the red hand was the hours and the green hand was the minutes, but the hands of this clock were both black.

_ The big one that should be red is between the 9 and the 10, but it's closer to the 10. The one that should be green is right next to it. So it's..._

Bonnie couldn't tell what time it was. "Mommy," She whimpered again, starting to cry. She ran off down the hallway, hoping she would find her mommy soon.

-line break!-

Dr. North had left Betty alone with Blaine. Betty was currently perched on the edge of his bed, her arm cradling his head, her hand wrapped around to stroke his cheek with her fingers. She was quietly singing the songs she would sing to him when he was a baby, and whenever he was sick or hurt. She remembered the time he fell out of a tree he was climbing and broke his arm. It happened the same time Betty went into labour with Bonnie.

_Why couldn't you have broken your arm a few days earlier? That would have made it so much easier for all of us._

"Oh, Hon," Betty whispered, craning down to kiss Blaine's forehead.

"M-Mom?" A raspy voice whispered back.

"Blaine? I'm here, Babe," Betty said, excited and incredibly nervous at the same time.

"Mom?" He whispered again, his eyes still clenched shut.

"Yes, Dear?"

His bright eyes opened and looked at her, reminiscent of Bambi or Puss in Boots from Shrek. "I want cornflakes."

Betty laughed lightly and embraced her conscious son.

"Ow!"

Betty gasped and let go immediately, "Oh my god, Blaine, I'm so sorry!"

"That's okay, just... warn me next time."

"Okay, Dear. I'm going to hug you now, and I may never let go," She said, then embraced him again, more cautiously this time.

Blaine let a shaking breath out of his mouth and lifted his good hand to pat his mom on the back gently.

Just then, the door opened and a nurse in green scrubs stepped in with Bonnie clinging to her leg. "I found this wandering around," The nurse said exasperatedly, "does it belong to you?"

Betty laughed again. She was in a laughing mood. "Yes, it does," She smiled at Bonnie.

Bonnie extracted herself from the nurse and ran over to her mom, wrapping herself around Betty's leg instead.

"Thank you," Betty smiled at the nurse.

The nurse rolled her eyes, but chuckled as she left the room, closing the door.

"Bonnie," Betty said quietly, patting her little girl's head, "look who's awake."

Bonnie looked up and saw Blaine for the first time since the accident. She looked scared. "Blaine?"

"It's me, Bonnie," He told her, holding his hand out to her.

Bonnie approached his hand like a wary dog trying to determine if this was a threat or not. She seemed to decide he was safe, and put her tiny hand into his. He squeezed it. Hard.

"Ow, Blay-een!" She whined, trying to pry herself from his grasp. He refused to let go.

"B-Bonnie?" He asked quietly.

"Yeah, Blaine?" Bonnie stopped squirming.

"Did you eat my sour worms?" Blaine raised an eyebrow at her as best he could.

Bonnie looked at Blaine with the cutest look of guilt he had ever seen. Her eyes went wide and her bottom lip quivered. Then, she burst out in tears.

"Oh, Bonnie!" Blaine couldn't help laughing at her. She was adorable. He let go of her hand and used his good arm to hoist her up onto the bed by her waist. She immediately buried her face in his chest, blubbering. He wrapped her in his arm and held her tight, still laughing. He looked at Betty and they laughed together.

-line break!-

A/N: "A dyslexic man walks into a bra..."

D'awww, sho kyoot. Especially that part with Finn. It had nothing to do with anything, but I wanted to write it because I'm selfish. Hope that's okay with you.

I have fallen ill, so I'll hopefully be writing more in the coming days. Unfortunately, my workplace doesn't think being sick is a good enough excuse to miss work, so that whole "writing more" thing may just be a pipe dream. On another note, I can't figure out line breaks because I am a complete and utter luddite. Help?


	6. Alien Baby

A/N: AHMAHGAH. . Sorry I haven't updated in a while. I have no excuse. Well, I have no GOOD excuse. I could easily come up with a crappy one. Anyway, this chapter isn't sad so the joke at the end will be slightly less funny and slightly more offensive. My reasoning makes sense, doesn't it? (PS - Don't you just love Darren Criss' face? I do. When Blaine had that big epiphany in the last episode his face was being uber cute.) As always, this story doesn't follow Glee's timeline. On with the show!

"Good morning, Sunshine." Carole's face was floating in front of Kurt's eyes. Bright light was streaming from behind her, circling her like a halo.

"Whuh?" Kurt grumbled, ever-so-eloquently.

"Dude," Finn's voice came from Kurt's right somewhere, "you're so stupid."

"Seriously, Kurt," Burt's voice came from the other direction, "I can't leave you unsupervised for one minute without you doing something stupid."

"What did I do?" Kurt moaned, shielding his eyes with his arm. A cast hit his forehead. "Wait, what?" He said, fully awake now. He looked up at his arm. It was in a plaster cast. "Oh. Well, shit."

"Language," Burt's voice scolded.

"You fell down the stairs and broke your arm, Honey," Carole told Kurt.

Kurt blinked a few times, trying to clear his vision. He was in a room - probably a hospital room - and Carole, Burt and Finn were all there. A large window was behind Carole, letting in obnoxious amounts of sunlight. "Morning?" Kurt muttered, "Morning?" His brain was knocking against his skull as if trying to remind him of something. Something important. "Blaine!"

"Whoa, whoa, there!" Burt said as he tried to keep Kurt from jumping out of bed, "Blaine's fine. He's awake. Just relax."

"I want to see him!" Kurt shouted, struggling against Burt's hold on him. A two-minute struggle of flailing limbs and grunted swears ensued; Burt finally acceded when Kurt bit his forearm. Hard. Kurt bolted out of the room without another word, barefoot, his hospital gown fluttering epically behind him.

Kurt's eyes didn't know where he was going, but his feet sure did. They led him through empty halls, past startled-looking bystanders and through automatic glass doors. One set of doors didn't open quite fast enough, and Kurt smacked into it like a bug on a windshield. He shook himself and, as soon as the doors were fully open, continued running.

The hospital was filled with boring doors, each identical to the last, yet somehow Kurt managed to recognize the one he had been staring at the night before. He flung it open like a madman.

xxxx

Blaine refused to go back to sleep after first waking up. He was acting like a restless newborn, so excited by the world around him and just wanting to jump into it. But Dr. North (not to mention Betty) wouldn't let Blaine move even a little bit. When he shifted to fluff his pillow, Betty jumped and shouted, "No!"

_I haven't felt this restricted since I broke my arm. I just want to get up and DO something._

_ … I want to go to Denny's and have hash browns. Denny's hash browns are the best._

There was pain, but Blaine could ignore it fairly easily. Dr. North was right, the worst Blaine felt was bored. He was also perpetually hungry in the first few hours after waking. He got corn flakes fairly quickly after he asked for them, but every hour since, he'd been having strange, breakfast-related cravings. He also really wanted coffee, but Betty wouldn't let him have any because she wanted him to go back to sleep.

_Maybe I'm pregnant. Maybe these are pregnancy cravings. You're not allowed to drink coffee when you're pregnant, right? I bet if I asked for alcohol they would say no, too. Oh man, I'm pregnant. Probably with an alien baby. They're probably going to make a movie about me and my alien baby. I hope James Cameron doesn't direct it. That would suck._

The hours crawled by like snails on a speedway. Bonnie quickly fell asleep on the little settee provided in Blaine's room, but Betty stayed up in the chair next to the bed, drinking coffee and reading magazines. Every ten minutes or so, she would ask Blaine if he needed anything. The only things he asked for were assorted breakfast foods and for the blinds to be opened. Blaine watched the sunrise as his brain stumbled aimlessly like a drunk elephant at the circus.

_I wonder what a good name for an alien baby would be. How about Hamish? Hmm, too human._

Blaine's eyes alternated from looking out the window to looking at the clock on the wall. He tried several times to use his telepathic powers to move the clock hands, but it hadn't worked yet.

_Oh! I know! I'll name him Jedi. I've never heard of a human named Jedi before._

Soon, the sun was completely up and the dull, grey dawn had turned into a beautiful winter morning. The sunlight was taunting Blaine the way it did when he was a kid and was bed-ridden from the flu but just wanted to go outside and play.

_ Or maybe Benjamin. Mom would like it if my alien baby had a name that started with B._

Just as Blaine was pondering this, the door slammed open and there was Kurt, hair mussed, cheeks red and panting heavily.

"Kurt?" Blaine said, happily surprised. "Wait, Kurt? Why do you have a cast? What happ-"

Blaine's words were cut short by Kurt, who had stormed over to Blaine and smacked him on the back of the head. "Ow!" Blaine exclaimed.

"How dare you! Do you have any idea the hell you put us through?" Kurt started shouting, "I sat on a gross hospital floor for you! I stayed up all night and, believe me, hospital coffee is NOT good!"

Blaine stared at Kurt in slightly-amused shock.

"And your mother! Dear lord, your mother! I can only imagine the pain she's gone through!"

"Um," Betty said from her seat, interrupting Kurt's ravings, "I'm just going to, umm, go," She mumbled. She hoisted the sleeping Bonnie into her arms and backed out of the room.

The short interruption seemed to have relieved Kurt of his built-up steam, and he fell silent, sinking into the seat just vacated by Betty. His round, doe eyes turned toward Blaine. "I'm sorry," He whispered.

Blaine stared at Kurt, confused.

"I'm sorry," Kurt repeated, louder this time.

"What - why?"

"I asked you to go to the aquarium with me." Kurt said, looking down into his lap.

Blaine's muddled mind snapped into place. "Kurt," He said sternly, "look at me, Kurt."

Kurt raised his eyes to meet Blaine's again.

"Did you put ice on the road?" Blaine asked rhetorically, his eyes narrowing and his lips tightening.

Kurt just looked at him blankly.

"Exactly. So why the hell are you apologizing?"

A lone tear rolled down Kurt's cheek.

Blaine reached over and placed his hand on Kurt's knee.

"I though you were going to die," Kurt murmured.

"Never," Blaine whispered, smiling.

The tension between them was so sweet and comfortable, a complete paradox.

"What a weak car," Kurt changed the subject, "It must've been lighter than a sardine tin. Next time buy, like, a Hummer or something."

"I'd prefer a Hummel," Blaine muttered under his breath.

"What?"

"What?"

"Did you say something?"

"Not even a little bit." Blaine smiled wide like a mischievous child. "Don't diss the car. If it was American-made I probably would've died."

"True," Kurt agreed. After a short pause, Kurt's face lit up and he said, "Oh!" and rushed out of the room without an explanation.

Blaine was completely dumbfounded until, forty minutes later, Kurt returned with two giant coffees and a pack of Chocolate Werther's. They sat together, drank together and laughed together all day. Kurt told Blaine how he broke his arm (blushing of embarrassment the entire time) and everything that happened while Blaine had been unconscious. Blaine taught Kurt how to play blackjack and Kurt taught Blaine how to tie a cherry stem into a knot with his tongue. By mid-afternoon, three empty packs of Werther's and an empty jar of cherries were in the garbage can and each boy had had two more overpriced, sugar-laden coffee drinks. Blaine was in the middle of writing dirty lyrics on Kurt's cast with a bright purple pen when Kurt turned to him and said:

"Blaine?"

"Yeah?" Blaine answered, too focused to look up from his writing.

"I... I think I'm in love with you."

The purple pen hit the floor with a resounding clatter.

xxxx

A/N: What do you call a black doctor? A doctor, you racist!

AHMAHGAH. A few months ago, an acquaintance of mine broke his arm and I wrote some pretty dirty lyrics on his cast. They were mostly from Bo Burnham's "Oh Bo." Google that shit. The lyrics are as dirty as white horses in the mud.

I have two-ish more chapters and then this little story will be done. Then I will probably proceed to write a cornucopia of Klaine fics. Look forward to it. Don't forget to review! It makes me oh so happy :)


	7. Gene Kelly Singing Aerosmith

A/N: Okay, I really want to write some Klaine one-shot funny fluff. Flunn, if you will. So we shall be wrapping this little story up soon. By the way, I made up a word in this chappie - "annelidal." It sounds like it should be a real word to me, but I couldn't actually find it defined anywhere. I used it anyway. It's the adjective form of "annelida," which is basically a segmented worm, like an earthworm. Another slightly offensive joke at the end. I'll save my favourite for the last chapter, which will be the little epilogue thingy. On with penultimateness!

xxxx

"I... I think I'm in love with you."

Blaine dropped the pen he had been holding onto the floor. He remained frozen, his hand still perched as if holding an invisible pen, his eyes frozen onto Kurt's cast.

Kurt gulped. He felt like he was trying to swallow a golf ball. His eyes scanned Blaine's face nervously, looking for any sign of a reaction.

_I can't believe I just did that. I freaked him out. Shit, shit, shit, shit, can I rewind time?_

Kurt's already-globular eyes widened further in fear and anticipation. As he looked at Blaine, he had trouble believing he wasn't looking at a still photograph. Blaine was amazingly still, frozen in time like Stonehenge. Only more frustrating. And better looking.

_Jeez, Blaine's kind of beautiful._

Blaine's Adam's apple quivered as he swallowed and his strong, square jaw clenched and unclenched repeatedly. He started chewing on his bottom lip. His full, pouty bottom lip.

_Oh, god. Don't do that now. If you're going to shoot me down, I need you to be as un-sexy as possible._

Blaine's ethnically-ambiguous eyes raised to meet Kurt's, burning Kurt like the molten gold they resembled. "Um." Blaine uttered.

_..."Um"? He said "um"? Are you kidding me?_

"I, uh... I think maybe I -" Blaine was stuttering like a nervous schoolchild. "I probably - I mean, I _do_ - um. You... too."

Kurt just looked at Blaine.

_ Wow. Could he have made that any more cryptic? What did he just say?_

"I, uh," Blaine started again, realizing he needed to clarify, "I love you too."

"Wait, really?" Kurt was shocked.

"Yeah." Blaine dropped his eyes from Kurt's just as Kurt looked to the side, as if eye contact was stinging them both right now. Neither of them knew what to say and the silence was so awkward that when they caught each other's eyes again, they both burst out laughing.

Kurt's insides bubbled like champagne and the feeling flowed out through his mouth as euphoric giggles. But the bubbles flattened as his laughter died. He still didn't believe what Blaine had just told him. "No, really? Like, really?"

Blaine smiled and his eyes crinkled, conveying true happiness. "Yes, Kurt. You know that sound when you open a new bottle of soda? That's what my heart does whenever I see you."

"Oh my god, you're adorable," Kurt said reflexively. He blushed when he realized he had said that out loud.

"Kurt?" Blaine started.

"Yeah?"

"Can I kiss you now?"

"Oh. Um. Yes please. I mean, yeah."

Blaine leaned forward tentatively. Kurt did the same. Their lips touched so softly at first that it tickled and Kurt shivered.

Blaine pulled back and looked at Kurt. "Something wrong?"

"What? No," Kurt whined, "get back here."

Blaine chuckled. In one swift move, he put his strong hand behind Kurt's neck, pulled him in and mashed their mouths together. Blaine's lips were so warm that Kurt melted into them with a guttural moan. Blaine responded to the noise enthusiastically, to say the least. Kurt was vaguely aware of their bodies shifting and he shivered again when he felt Blaine's fingers run through his hair. Kurt cupped Blaine's jaw with his hand.

Blaine gasped and Kurt broke the kiss. Blaine's eyes contained storms of passion and his voice was low and breathy when he said, "I'm in so much pain right now."

"Oh!" Kurt exclaimed. That's when he realized that he was straddling Blaine on the bed, his knees on either side of Blaine's waist. Kurt jumped off. "Oops. Sorry."

Their eyes locked again as they fell silent. Then they started to laugh.

xxxx

By sunset, Kurt's cast was covered in purple lyrics and slightly pornographic doodles. Blaine's cast, on the other hand, was covered with sickeningly adorable love song lyrics and little hearts. As the sun fell and the moon rose, Kurt and Blaine sat on Blaine's bed and talked about everything. Kurt told Blaine about when his mom died and Blaine told Kurt about his dad leaving. They told each other embarrassing childhood stories ("I actually thought I could fly. My mom still thinks I just fell out of that tree, but I jumped. I was so sure I would fly,") and about their families ("I don't know why my parents thought rhyming names would be cute. If I had had a little brother, I'm worried his name would've been Dirt or something,"). But after a while, Blaine's pain was getting unbearable, so Dr. North upped his morphine and Kurt left so Blaine could sleep. As soon as he was away from Blaine, his arm started pulsing with the pain a broken bone inevitably causes. He stumbled back to his room, asked for some painkillers of his own and fell asleep with a smile on his face.

xxxx

Blaine was awoken the next morning by a strange, stinging sensation in his nose. He opened his eyes to see Bonnie sitting beside him on the bed, stuffing sour worms up his nostrils.

"Augh! Bonnie! What are you doing?" He shouted, sitting up and pulling the annelidal treats from his nose.

"I thought you wanted sour worms!" Bonnie said defensively.

"But why were you putting them up my nose?"

"Your mouth wasn't open."

Blaine raised an eyebrow at Bonnie's logic and she stared back as if daring him to challenge it. Blaine opened and closed his mouth a few times as he tried to think of a clever retort, but was saved when Betty walked in.

"Morning, Baby," She greeted Blaine. She was smiling, but her eyes squinted at him worriedly.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Blaine questioned her.

"Well, you kind of have, um, a... Harvey Dent thing going on," Betty gestured towards Blaine's face.

"What?" Blaine shrieked, "No way! Mirror!" He demanded, letting his vanity show.

Betty rifled through her purse and pulled out a compact mirror then handed it to Blaine.

The entire right side of Blaine's face was bright purple-red and the bruising covered twice the area it had the day before.

"Holy shit." Blaine whispered hoarsely.

"Hey! Watch your language in front of Bonnie, please," Betty scolded him, but in the You-Really-Deserve-To-Swear-So-I'll-Let-It-Go-This-Time way.

"It's okay, Mommy. I'm old enough."

Before Betty could reply to Bonnie, the three Andersons heard a voice wafting towards them from beyond the door. Soft at first, but slowly increasing in intensity.

"I could stay awake just to hear you breathing,"

Blaine immediately recognized it as Kurt's voice and the look on Betty's face suggested that she could guess who it was.

"Watch you smile while you are sleeping, far away and dreaming," Kurt's voice was nearing and a silly, light suspension was building as Betty and Blaine both expected him to burst through the door soon.

"I could spend my life in this sweet surrender, I could stay lost in this moment forever,"

Bonnie looked questioningly at Blaine, then at Betty, then at Blaine again.

A loud thump sounded from the other side of the closed door, signifying that Kurt had slammed against it with his body. "Well, every moment spent with you is a moment I treasure!" At this, Kurt did indeed burst into the room, hanging off of the doorknob like Gene Kelly off of a lamppost and singing Aerosmith at the top of his lungs. "I DON'T WANNA CLOSE MY EYES, I DON'T WANNA FAAAALL ASLEEP, 'CAUSE I'D MISS YOU BABE, AND I DON'T WANNA MISS A THING!" Kurt didn't stop to take another breath before turning to Betty and saying, "Good morning, Mrs. Anderson, I'm in love with your son."

Blaine blushed furiously but Betty just smiled, put her hand on Kurt's shoulder and said, "I know."

Blaine grinned. His body ached and creaked, his bones were broken and his face was marred, but his heart glowed. Here he was, in a room with his three favourite people in the world. He couldn't ask for anything more.

xxxx

A/N: "If a tree falls on a woman and no one is around to hear it, what is a tree doing in the kitchen?"

"I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing" is, in my opinion, one of the greatest love songs of all time. Don'tcha agree? Review please, but don't tell me that this chapter sucked more than usual. I know that already. I'm not at my best, but I still want to write anyway. I'm out of virtual cookies and Red Vines, so I think I'll have to start giving out virtual DQ Blizzards. Sound good? Just let me know what virtual flavour you want and I'll virtually make it for you.


	8. The Aquarium REVISITED

A/N: Aw, shoot. I thought I uploaded this already. And it seems cruel to have such a long hiatus when this is just a dinky little epilogue thingy. Forgive me.

xxxx

"'The sixgill shark gets its name from the fact that is has six gill slits, unlike most other sharks which have only five.'" Kurt was reading emphatically from the pamphlet he held in his hands.

"That's... _fascinating_," Blaine said as he grabbed Kurt's shoulders from behind and wheeled him around, "but - and this is just a thought - instead of reading about it, why don't you look at the damned thing?" Blaine lifted Kurt's chin up to the monstrous glass wall in front of them. On the other side were hundreds of small, bright fish clustered into little schools while a giant shark glided between them.

"That," Kurt squeaked, eyes transfixed on the floating beast, "is awesome."

"And look!" Blaine squealed, pointing excitedly at another tank filled with purple jellyfish. "And this!" Blaine crouched behind a plaque about angler fish and hugged it emphatically, smiling like a schoolboy. Surrounding people were starting to stare at the grown man acting like a toddler.

Kurt chuckled and shook his head softly. Only his boyfriend would be willing to make such a fool of himself in public.

"So," Blaine continued at a lower decibel as he stood up and walked towards Kurt, "we really don't need _this_," he grabbed the pamphlet out of Kurt's hands and tossed it behind him recklessly, "do we?"

"No," Kurt conceded, wrapping his arms up around Blaine's neck, "I suppose we don't." He pressed his lips lightly to Blaine's. Blaine whimpered like a dog when Kurt pulled away.

"Now, we'll have none of that." Kurt scolded Blaine, smirking. "Come on, there are turtles this way!" Kurt led the way through the aquarium with Blaine trailing behind him like a loyal puppy.

xxxx

A/N: Done! Phew! Just a final little piece to tie everything together. PS - When the hell is my Glee addiction going to be sated? This is killing me, folks, as I'm sure it's killing you, too. It's like, "Finally! We get to see the Klaine relationship actually - oh, nevermind."


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